[From Trans. Biol. Soc. L'pool. Vol. VII.] 



SIXTH ANNUAL EEPOKT of the LIVEKPOOL 



MAKINE BIOLOGY COMMITTEE, and their 



BIOLOGICAL STATION at POET EEIN. 



By W. a. Herdman, D.Sc, F.R.S. 



DERBY PROFKSSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LIVERPOOL ; 



CHAIRMAN OF THE LIVERPOOL MARINE BIOLOGY COMMITTEE, 



AND DIRECTOR OF THE PORT ERIN STATION. 



[Read 9th December, 1892.] 



Introduction. 



As this, although a continuation of the series of Annual 

 Eeports dealing largely with the Biological Station on 

 Puffin Island, is also in a sense the opening of a new 

 record, it may help some of those whose sympathy we 

 wish to enlist in the new locality where we have come to 

 work if a brief explanation is given of the object of the 

 Liverpool Marine Biology Committee and of the reason 

 why they have a Station at the Isle of Man. 



Biology is the science of living things, and deals with 

 all plants and all animals including man. Used in its 

 proper wide sense Biology includes not only Botany and 

 Zoology, or Natural History, but also Embryology, 

 Palaeontology, Anatomy, Physiology and Anthropology. 

 Marine Biology deals with the development, life-history, 

 structure, actions, and relationships of the animals and 

 plants which live in the sea, and also with any general 

 theoretical questions upon which these animals and plants 

 throw any light. 



Some of the reasons why marine biology is a favourite 

 subject of investigation, and is so often spoken of apart 

 from other biological studies, are, that animals are much 

 more numerous and more varied in the sea, and especially 

 round the coasts, than upon land or in fresh waters, and 

 represent a larger number of the more important groups ; 



